This article discusses cold allergies associated with histamine overreactions which go deep under the skin from a homeopathic standpoint. The “classical” allergies have been discussed more often at this point. It has already been shown that allergies should be understood as a protest reaction connected with those themes, which the respective allergen, be it an animal, a plant, or a food, archetypical, symbolizes. For example, pollen is associated with creativity, and house dust falls in the context of poor living conditions.
Being “Sick of it!”
Being “sick of it” and blurting this feeling out loud is a somatic expression of one’s defiant emotions with tears and snot instead of words – all this seems more straightforward than making clear verbal statements. Thus, we recognize from the rise of allergic diseases that the individualization process is difficult to cope with and is not always entirely feasible in our modern society. For example:
“The less developed one’s ability to communicate, the greater the temptation to use symptoms and allergies as a form of communication.”
Pseudo-allergies such as lactose intolerance
However, there are also allergies or pseudoallergies with which the patient does not draw attention to himself and others by loud statements but instead uses “silent” expressions. These include, for example, lactose intolerance, the so-called cold allergy, aspirin intolerance, or allergic reactions to antibiotics and also to artificial food ingredients or additives.
Cold urticaria, for example, is more widespread than generally assumed. Histamine is released in the mast cells of the subcutaneous tissue, causing reddening of the skin, painful tingling and swelling of the affected skin areas, and a feeling of great heat and tension.
In patients who develop a cold allergy, at least one deep-seated, unresolved “frustration situation” can be discovered.
Often it is the loss of a parent who has suddenly disappeared from the life of the cold allergy sufferer. This deprivation is usually not due to death but rather a breakup with one part of the family the individual loved dearly due to one parent’s favor.
an example from practice
The sexually extremely active father of a daughter lets his wife suffer through his sexual and for her unfulfillable demands. Then, based on his affairs, he must leave the family. The meanwhile 15-year-old daughter herself agrees and demands that the father moves in with his mistress. There is no further contact with the beloved father, but she disconnects from him out of loyalty to the mother. A short time later, the first cold allergy appeared on the daughter’s skin.
The repertorization of cold allergy symptoms
It shows this person who has fallen from her inner center (Urtica urens), who prostitutes herself out of a need for protection (Musk), in this case towards her mother, but feels raped (Creosotum), in the sense that she actively acts against her interests (Cantharis), ultimately denies the lust for life and blames others for it (Hydrastis).
The site of histamine release, the hypodermis, indicates that conflicts in contact with others go “under the skin” in a double sense of the word – the compulsion for demarcation is strongly suppressed and “boils,” so to speak, under the surface.
Histaminum muriaticum In homeopathic potency stands for “Excessive activity as a survival concept”.
Typical indications for histaminum
- Activity improves symptoms
- Allergy
- Hay fever
- Hypotension = lowering of blood pressure
- Impatience
Reactions and life situations of histamine patients
With histamine patients, we often find a life situation where overshooting reactions resulting from severe injury and perhaps even imprinted fear of death, a feeling of chronic threat, and panic reactions play a significant role. Subconscious sensory perceptions, such as smells, temperatures, or situations, immediately trigger a specific behavioral pattern, a survival instinct. People in this situation feel extreme physical or emotional overstress or tremendous pressure to act. The higher the accumulated tension, the stronger the panic reactions. Physical compensation becomes urgent.
Treatment for histamine patients
After the administration of Histaminum, the deeper-lying, miasmatic or karmic issues such as massive existential fear (Arsenicum album) and expectation anxiety (Gelsemium) as well as the need to force support (Calcium carbonicum) and supply become visible based on the follow-up remedies.
The challenge is now to learn to use the vital force for oneself (Carbo vegetabilis) and thus resolve the paradoxical emotional action (Ignatia amara) that can arise from feelings of dependence (China officinalis). A confrontation (Pulsatilla pratensis) with the causes of the deep fears of death is urgently advisable. Fears and anxieties related to arguments could be another expression of a “wanting to escape” attitude based on a trauma-induced imprint.
The patient’s guilt complex
In the communication repertoire of patients, there are often symptoms which at first glance, but only at this glance, seem to be unambiguous:
A potent guilt complex of the above-mentioned cold urticaria patient in critical situations manifested itself in the fact that in a group, she had to constantly and compulsively blame everyone, which at some point was also expressed by a third person. In short: She was always (up) to blame!
On closer inspection, this personality imprint turned out to be a behavioral and communication pattern of conflict denial. Every time she felt wronged by something or someone, she communicated a feeling of guilt that was inexplicable to others. This only becomes understandable when considering that she had expelled the father from the family without regarding her feelings and affection for him. Here we find a longing to escape and the conflict denial aspect of Pulsatilla.
Cold Shock and conflict denial
A potentially life-threatening situation of cold urticaria is anaphylactic shock, which can occur, for example, when jumping into cold water. The sudden unexpected plunge into “emotional depths,” because water symbolizes emotions, leads to a sudden shock, which should be evaluated as a repetition. It is a reenactment of the past and repressed emotional trauma.
The subsequent circulatory collapse is seen as an escape reaction in the sense of a death wish. In such cases, first aid recommends elevating the legs so that the brain is better supplied with blood, life starts flowing again, and life’s joy can be felt again. Symbolically, improving the condition through the elevation of the legs stands for the short-term relief of severe pressure, namely to have to go one’s own way and, thus, be honest and authentic. Conflict suppression inhibits this process most seriously.
Intolerance of patients
In addition to cold allergy symptoms, this patient developed an intolerant reaction to aspirin, the active ingredient Acidum Salicylicum, which manifested in extremely rapid evolving, disfiguring angioedema in the area of the ends of facial nerves around the lips. The patient developed sensual lips as if spurred up. This “representation” of the face symbolizes, on the one hand, the masking of one’s sensual expression, and on the other hand, the inability of this girl to show her emotional side, her true face, in everyday life.
After administering Salycilicum acidum C 50 000 in homeopathic form, the tension was released very quickly, and the swelling subsided entirely within a short time. This remedy, with the psychological meaning of “inability to express oneself about the fact that life is seen as a struggle based on a frustrating point of view,” fitted very well as a quasi-complication of the cold allergy. It was grafted onto the trauma as an inability or unwillingness to confront conflicts.
Self-betrayal as a supposed way out
To become healthy, the patient had to learn to stand by her own feelings, which were quite different from those of her mother. To admit this, she had to understand and develop the courage to recognize that she was much more like her despised father than she realized. With this self-confession, she feared the same rejection from her mother as she had experienced from her father. As a 15-year-old, she still felt she needed her mother’s protection, so she developed her pattern of self-betrayal.
Homeopathic Conclusion
This patient needed to start her healing process to question and solve the “overly loyal” adaptation towards her mother (allergy to colds) to be able to take her own stand towards her father (allergy to aspirin). This relation was much more “sensual,” also representing the whole world of men, than she could admit to herself until then. After curing the cold allergy, there was also an immediate change regarding the man-woman relationship on the partnership level. The patient got married at the age of over forty-three.
The original article about cold allergy was written by Antonie Peppler and translated by Christian Köhlert.
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